ai4bharat/Pralekha huggingface dataset:
Ministry of Communications
Digital outreach across the Country
As per latest “The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators” reports released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India  dated 10th January, 2022, internet subscribers in rural and urban areas of the country are 336.60 million and 497.69 million respectively at the end of September, 2021.
Following steps have been taken by the Government for enhancing digital outreach in the country:
- Mobile/Broadband/Internet services are provided in a phased manner by the Government and Telecom Services Provider  in the uncovered villages of the country. The Government, with funding from Universal Service Obligation Fund , has schemes namely Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for North Eastern Region, Left Wing Extremism  Affected Area schemes, Aspirational Districts Schemes, Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for Islands, etc. to extend mobile connectivity through setting up of towers in the uncovered villages of the country.
- BharatNet project is implemented in a phased manner to provide broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats  in the country. The infrastructure created under BharatNet project can be utilized by Service providers, for provisioning of broadband/internet services. The scope of BharatNet has been recently extended up to all inhabited villages beyond GPs in the country.
National Broadband Mission  was launched on 17th December 2019 with a vision to fast-track growth of digital communications infrastructure, bridge the digital divide, facilitate digital empowerment and inclusion, and provide affordable and universal access of broadband for all.
To enhance proliferation of broadband services through public Wifi, Prime Minister Wireless Access Network Interface  framework has been introduced. The PM-WANI framework enables provision of broadband through a distributed architecture and unbundling of functions. Under this framework entities are neither required to take any license nor pay any fee to the Government. The details of the same are available at website pmwani.gov.in
Licensed Service providers provide broadband services in urban and rural areas of the country as per their business plans. However, for expansion of broadband services in rural and remote areas of the country, there are various Government schemes with the support from Universal Service Obligation Fund  under which total fund earmarked/disbursed for last 5 years and current year till February, 2022 is about 31529 Cr.
In addition to BharatNet project in Rajasthan, the Government has following schemes under USOF for enhancing internet/broadband in the state:
- Provision of mobile connectivity in 354 uncovered villages, Border area & other priority areasof various states including Rajasthan.
- Provision of 4G mobile connectivity in 502 uncovered villages of Aspirational Districts in four States including Rajasthan.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Communications, Shri Devusinh Chauhan in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
Ministry of Education
NCERT launches Online Yoga Quiz Competition to promote integration of Yoga in school curriculum
The competition will help children to develop healthy habits and lifestyle - Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank'
The competition is open for all students of classes 6 to 12 across the country
Ministry of Human Resource Development  through National Council of Educational Research and Training  has undertaken multi-dimensional initiatives to promote integration of Yoga in school curriculum. NCERT has developed textual materials on Yoga for Healthy Living for Upper Primary to Secondary Stages and also has been organising Yoga Olympiad since 2016. In COVID-19 situation children are being guided by their teachers and parents at home to do yogic practices along with physical exercises based on Alternative Academic Calendar developed for different stages of school education. But due to the outbreak of Corona pandemic, it is difficult to organise Yoga Olympiad this year. To enable students to learn at home and be safe, Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' through social media launched an Online Yoga Quiz Competition organised by NCERT.
Speaking on the occasion Union HRD Minister said that the objective of this Competition is to create awareness and to motivate children to acquire comprehensive information from authentic sources on different yogic practices. The Minister said that the competition aims at developing deep understanding and motivating children to apply the understanding of these practices in one’s life and living. He added that the Competition will also help children to develop healthy habits and lifestyle and thereby promote a sound emotional and mental wellbeing.
Shri Pokhriyal informed that the Yoga Quiz Competition will be on different dimensions of yoga: Yama and Niymaa Shatkarma/Kriya, Asanas, Pranayama, Meditation, Bandha and Mudra based on the syllabi developed by NCERT. He further informed that the competition, is open for all students of classes 6 to 12 across the country. The Minister highlighted that the steps have been taken to promote active participation of students with special needs by converting question from text to audio. The questions asked in this online Competition will be of Multiple Choice type. These will be available to children both in Hindi and English language. The Child can opt appropriate language. Certificate of merit shall be issued to 100 top scorers.
The detailed scheme has already been uploaded on NCERT website . The quiz will be open for one month, starting on 21st June and will close on 20 July midnight, 2020. Link of the quiz is given as under:
English Quiz= https://bit.ly/EYQ_NEWS
Hindi Quiz= https://bit.ly/HYQ_NEWS
Ministry of Steel
Shri Dharmendra Pradhan calls for Switching to 100% Clean Fuels for Prime Tourist Cities; Addresses Meet on World Tourism Day
On the occasion of the World Tourism Day, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Shri Dharmendra Pradhan today addressed a virtual meet on the theme of “Tourism and rural development”, along with Minister of State  for Tourism Shri Prahlad Singh Patel.
Minister Pradhan commended the Ministry of Tourism for its novel initiative ‘DekhoApnaDesh’ that promotes and encourages local heritage and tourist sites. He spoke about India's rich culture, history and ancient architectural marvels which offer immense scope for the growth of tourism industry. Talking about Internet’s role in making the world a global village, Shri Pradhan called for effective use of technology to further strengthen India's position as a global tourist hotspot.
Shri Pradhan said that tourism industry offers unprecedented potential for employment generation and empowerment of our youth, also in the rural areas. He said that every district of our country has a historic story to share or a legend to narrate, and as India celebrates 75 years of independence in 2022, we must work on creating more tourism sites around the heroism of our freedom fighters.
Minister Pradhan called for weaving sustainability with tourism and collaborating to switch prime tourist cities to 100% clean fuels, which will further help protect our monuments and ensure a cleaner environment for the tourists.
Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers
Govt of India to roll out Schemes for Strengthening Pharmaceuticals Industry with Focus on MSMEs and Clusters
With an objective to further enhance India’s existing manufacturing prowess in the Pharmaceuticals Industry, Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Govt of India is planning to roll out a series of initiatives under the banner of Schemes for ‘Strengthening Pharmaceuticals Industry’ . Keeping in view the strategic role of MSMEs, who provide important forward and backward linkages to the industry, and also keeping in view that MSMEs tend to grow in clusters, these schemes shall address the issues of technology upgradation at both unit level and cluster level.
In order to strengthen the supply chain of Pharmaceuticals industry where MSMEs are an integral part, Govt of India shall be incentivizing the intending MSME units going in for acquiring Schedule M certification or WHO GMP Certification through the sub-scheme Pharmaceuticals Industry Technology Upgradation Assistance Scheme . The MSME unit shall have the option to choose from either Capital subsidy or Interest subvention. At the cluster level, the sub-scheme ‘Assistance to Pharmaceuticals Industry for Common Facilities’  envisages to support creation of common facilities like Testing Labs, Common Effluent Treatment plants and other such common facilities by providing Govt support in the form of capital grant to the extent of up to 70 per cent subject to a ceiling of a maximum of Rs. 20 crore. In order to plug the knowledge gap, the third sub-scheme proposes to conduct a series of awareness programs, conduct sectoral studies and organize similar such programs to generate soft inputs for policy advocacy.
These initiatives are formally getting unveiled by Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers and Health & Family Welfare Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, on July 21, 2022 at Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar International Convention Centre. MoS for Chemicals & Fertilizers Shri Bhagwanth Khuba shall also be gracing the occasion. Senior officials from Department of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Ministry of MSME, SIDBI, NSIC, Banks besides representatives of Industry, entrepreneurs, Start Ups etc.
Ministry of Finance
Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman chairs meeting to discuss post-budget action points for infrastructure roadmap ahead
Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in a virtual meeting today with CEO, NITI Aayog and Secretaries of 22 Infrastructure Ministries/Departments discussed post-budget action points for infrastructure roadmap ahead including NIP implementation. This was the third review meeting by the Finance Minister with Ministries/Departments about the importance of National Infrastructure Pipeline  and infrastructure sector to ensure a faster post covid-19 recovery of the economy.
It was discussed in the meeting, that in the year, when countries across the globe have been dealing with the challenges posed by Covid-19 pandemic, the NIP has shown substantial progress. The NIP was launched with 6,835 projects; the project pipeline has now been expanded to nearly 7,600 projects. It has witnessed accelerated spending on infrastructure projects in Ministries specially in Q2/Q3 FY21. It has helped in targeting substantial increase in infrastructure expenditure in many Ministries in FY21 over expenditure done in FY20. Around 216 projects worth Rs. 74,067 crore under GoI infrastructure ministries have been completed till Q3 FY 21. Around 678 projects worth Rs. 6 lakh crore have progressed from the lower stage to the upper stage of project formulation and implementation till Q3 FY 21. However, it has also been observed that Ministries/Departments needs to work very hard in order to ensure achieving targets of the NIP.
CEO, NITI Aayog gave a presentation on asset monetization and highlighted various models for monetization of core infrastructure assets and also spoke about finalizing targets for asset monetization.
While reviewing the performance of Ministries/Departments on NIP, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman emphasised that NIP will play a critical role in revitalizing economy post pandemic. Ministries/Departments were requested to aim to achieve more than the NIP targets.
The Finance Minister also highlighted that the NIP is not just central government budgetary expenditure on Infrastructure. It also includes infra spending by states and private sector. It also includes government expenditure through extra budgetary resources. Therefore, Ministries/Departments should actively work on getting project funded through innovative structuring and financing, provide all the help and support to private sector for enhanced infra spending. The Ministries/Departments also need to explore PPP mode for viable projects and use government funding for pushing infrastructure projects which can’t be done in PPP mode.
The Finance Minister during the discussion advised NITI Aayog to work on strengthening dispute resolution mechanism as updating MCAs as per international best practices.
In the end, the Finance Minister requested secretaries of Ministries/Departments to ensure their full and personal engagement in NIP implementation, updation on NIP portal and expedite implementation of NIP projects. She said that she will hold regular review meetings with all ministries/departments.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
COVID-19 UPDATE
74.38 Cr. vaccine doses have been administered so far under Nationwide Vaccination Drive
27,254 new cases in the last 24 hours
Active cases account for 1.13% of total cases
India's Active caseload stands at 3,74,269
Recovery Rate currently at 97.54%
37,687 recoveries in the last 24 hours increases Total Recoveries to 3,24,47,032
Weekly Positivity Rate  less than 3% for last 80 days
Daily positivity rate less than 3% for last 14 days
54.30 cr Total Tests conducted so far
Ministry of Defence
IAF Academic Collobaration with IDSR, Gujarat University MoU Signed on29 Dec 20
Indian Air Forceand Institute of Defence Studies and Research , anautonomous Institution of Gujarat University under the patronage of Government ofGujarat signed a Memorandum of Understanding  on 29 Dec 20. The MoUwill enable Officers of IAF to undertake Doctoral Research, Post-GraduateProgramme and Post Graduate Diploma covering various areas of interest thatincludes Defence studies, Defence Management, National Security, Aerospace &Aviation Science and other areas of Defence Technology.
The event held on a virtual platform was chaired by Air Officer-in-Charge Personnel,Air Marshal RJ Duckworth VSM. MoU was signed by Air Vice Marshal RajeevSharma, Assistant Chief of Air Staff  and Ms. Anju Sharma, IAS, PrincipalSecretary  to Government of Gujarat and Chairperson-IDSR. Prof Himanshu A Pandya, Vice Chancellor of Gujarat University and Director-General IDSR was also present on the occasion.
As part of Project Akashdeep, Indian Air Force has entered into such partnership with various prestigious Academias to promote research by Officers and create a pool ofthink tanks with strategic knowledge and intellectual skills. The expertise of these officers would contribute towards formulation of sound strategic plan and policies inthe advent of hybrid Military Operations.
Prime Minister's Office
PM announces ex-gratia for victims of building collapse in Mumbai
PM announces ex-gratia for victims of building collapse in Mumbai
The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved an ex- gratia of Rs. 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to a building collapse in Ghatkopar, Mumbai.
The Prime Minister has also approved Rs. 50,000 each for those injured due to the building collapse.
Ministry of Science & Technology
Central Drug Research Institute’s efforts to combat novel coronavirus
To sequence the virus strains obtained from COVID-19 patients
Working on three out of the five verticals formulated by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research , the Central Drug Research Institute , has inked an MoU  with King George’s Medical University  to sequence the virus strains obtained from COVID-19 patients in Uttar Pradesh. Initially, the Lucknow-based lab will sequence the virus strains from the samples of a few patients. This activity will be taken up under the first vertical ‘digital and molecular surveillance’.
As of now, eight different variants of the virus are known to be causing the COVID-19 infection. A team has been put into place for analyzing whether changes to the viral sequences, if any, will impact the proposed treatment strategies.
Therapeutics or repurposing of drugs to fight against COVID-19 is the second vertical where CDRI is getting involved. Under this, the researchers are trying to repurpose some already existing drugs that have been used by clinicians. “One of the fastest ways to get therapeutics to the patient is through repurposing known drugs against COVID-19 infection. Here, CDRI has identified several candidate drugs for repurposing and will develop them further under the collaboration,” said Professor Tapas Kumar, Director, CSIR-CDRI.
The institution has a diverse library of molecules and these have been screened using in silico approaches against a panel of drug targets from SARS-CoV-2 under the third vertical, ‘target-based screening systems’. The identified hits will be evaluated in a preliminary drug-target-based screen . “The m-protease, CL-proteinase, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, Spikeprotein-ACE2 system, and other targets are presently being worked on. Their binding/inhibition will also be evaluated in in vitro and in vivo systems with the help of sister laboratories and KGMU,” said Dr Kumar.
Professor Amita Jain will lead the team of scientists of KGMU, while Professor R. Ravishankar will lead the team of scientists from CSIR-CDRI. Dr Raj Kamal Tripathi, a virologist at CDRI and an alumnus of KGMU, is leading all the screening related work at CSIR-CDRI.
Ministry of Coal
Measures undertaken to boost coal production may eliminate coal imports by 2023: Shri Pralhad Joshi
The Union Minister for Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs said that the Government is undertaking measures to ramp up the domestic coal production from the current level of 730 MT to 1149 MT by 2023 thereby eliminating the coal import except for the limited un-substitutable import. He was addressing the 7th Roundtable Conference on Coal in which experts from Coal and Energy Sectors were participating in the capital today.

The Union Minister for coal opined that despite the push for renewable energy, the country will require base load capacity of coal-based generation for stability. Currently coal occupies 55% share in primary energy supply and about 75% in electricity generation. Shri Joshi said that the Government is opening new mines, expanding the capacity of existing mines and creating new evacuation infrastructure to ramp up the domestic coal production. CIL alone is poised to commission 11 new coking coal washeries in a phased manner to meet the total demand of washed domestic coking coal of steel sector, he added.
Outlining the initiatives that the Government has taken, such as, easing of mine plan approval, doing away with system of previous approval of Central Govt. for grant of mining lease, streamlining the grant of permits and clearances, greater coordination with State in matters relating to land acquisition, grant of lease, creation of sufficient coal evacuation infrastructure etc., Shri Joshi expressed confidence in boosting the domestic availability of coal in years to come. The Minister also highlighted the efforts of his Ministry to promote diversified use of coal such as conversion of coal to synthesis gas and subsequent use of the latter to produce methanol or fertilizers.
Earlier, Shri S C Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Power highlighted the need for working towards becoming a coal exporting country by efficient use of resources and proper energy planning. Senior officials Shri Rakesh Kumar, CMD, NLC India Ltd, Shri G C Mrig, President, ISMAA DC , Shri Anil Razdan, President, India Energy Forum, also addressed the inaugural session held in the capital today.
Ministry of Education
Clarification regarding fake websites
It has come to the notice of the Ministry of Education that in order to dupe innocent applicants several websites have been created with the name similar to the schemes  of this Department.
These websites are offering employment opportunities to the aspiring candidates and misguiding the job aspirants through the layout of website, content and presentation in a manner similar to original website and asking for money from the respondents for the applications. While, these websites have come to the notice of the Department of School Education and Literacy, there may be more such other websites/social media accounts promising jobs and demanding money for recruitment process.
The General Public is, hereby, advised to avoid applying for job opportunities on such websites and to ensure themselves that the websites are authorised by visiting the official website of the concerned Department/personal inquiry/telephone call/e-mail to safeguard their own interest. Any person applying on these websites will be doing so at his own risk & cost and shall be responsible for the consequences thereof.
Ministry of Finance
Central GST, Commissionerate, Kutch organized A plantation programme
A plantation programme  was organized by Central GST, Commissionerate, Kutch , on 06.06.2023 at 17:00 PM at the Archaeological Site Known as Dholavira, which has been recognised as World Heritage Centre, in July 2021, thanks to the untiring efforts put in by Hon'ble Prime Minister to demonstrate to the word that how Indians lived 5000 years back in a well-planned, integrated and self-sustained Townships, which was not known or even heard of or dreamt of in other parts of the world during this period, under iconic & dream project of Hon'ble Prime Minister "AZADI KA AMRIT MAHOTSAV" .
100 Plants were planted at Dholavir, while 400 plants were planted Saran Ganga site. On the occasion, Shri P. Anand Kumar, I.R.S., Commissioner, CGST Kutch along with Joint Commissioners Shree Ram Vishnoi and Shri Manish Kumar Meena, all Assistant Commissioners and other staff of CGST Kutch actively participated in the said plantation programme. Representatives from Archaeological Survey of India, CAZRI, Members from CA Association, Sarpanch Shri of Dholavira Shri Jilubha Sodha and local villagers were present on the occasion and actively participated in the programme to make it a successful.
Dholavira is one of the five largest Harappan sites of the Indus Valley Civilisation which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list on July 27, 2021. Being one of the favourite destinations of tourists across the world coming to Kutch to see the famous white desert of the Rann of Kutch along with Dholavira, the site was chosen for plantation to make it more attractive.
Tree plantation is recognised as one of the most environmentally friendly activity which help us to cope up with climate change and other environmental issues. Trees are essential not only for human beings but also for other living organisms. They unconditionally provide us with food, oxygen, and a variety of other necessities for human survival, such as shelter, medicines, tools, and so on. To make our world greener and better, we must pay more attention to tree planting in the future.
Ministry of Defence
ADMISSIONS TO SAINIK SCHOOLS 
The National Testing Agency  would be conducting the All India Sainik Schools Entrance Examination-2021  on 10 Jan 2021  for admissions to Classes VI and IX in 33 Sainik Schools spread across 23 States and one Union Territory. The process of online applications which started on 20 October 2020 will close on 19 November 2020. Candidates are required to submit their applications after registering on the website https://aissee.nta.nic.in. A detailed information bulletin is also available on the NTA site- www.nta.ac.in. From the academic session 2021-22, reservation in admission for OBC-NCL category has been introduced. Girl candidates are now eligible for admission to Class VI in all 33 Sainik Schools.